Edward Falcaro asked: "Anybody know anything about Europe or Asia?
Jimmy, you flew over once, didn't you? To see about Anatolian poppies
when the Mob had trouble with Mex labor?"
Jimmy Falcaro said creakily: "Yeah. It was a waste of time. They have
these little dirt farmers scratching out just enough food for the family
and maybe raising a quarter-acre of poppy. That's _all_ there is from
the China Sea to the Mediterranean. In England--Frank, you tell 'em. You
explained it to me once."
Taylor rose. "The forest's come back to England. When finance there lost
its morale and couldn't hack its way out of the paradoxes that was the
end. When that happens you've got to have a large, virile criminal class
ready to take over and do the work of distribution and production. Maybe
some of you know how the English were. The poor beggars had civilized
all the illegality out of the stock. They couldn't do anything that
wasn't respectable. From sketchy reports, I gather that England is now
forest and a few hundred starving people. One fellow says the men still
wear derbies and stagger to their offices in the city.
"France is peasants, drunk three-quarters of the time.
"Russia is peasants, drunk _all_ the time.
"Germany--well, there the criminal class was _too_ big and _too_ virile.
The place is a cemetery."